Interactive media (e.g., the Internet) may help improve the targeting of advertisements (“ads”) to receptive audiences. Ads can be presented as banner ads, sets of one or more text boxes, video ads, audio ads, and the like. For example, some websites provide information search functionality that is based on key words entered by the user seeking information. This user query can be an indicator of the type of information of interest to the user. By comparing the user query to a list of key words specified by an advertiser, it is possible to provide targeted ads to the user.
Another form of online advertising is ad syndication, which allows advertisers to extend their marketing reach by distributing contextual ads to additional partners. For example, third party online publishers can place an advertiser's text or image ads within or alongside desired publisher content to motivate potential customers to seek additional information (e.g., navigate to the advertiser's website, etc.). An example of such a system is AdSense™ offered by Google Inc.
In contextual advertising systems (e.g., AdSense™), ads are selected and served by automated systems based on the content displayed to the user in, for example, a browser window. The displayed content is analyzed to determine the “context” of the information (e.g., the main topic) so that ads that best match the context can be targeted to the content display. In contextual advertising systems such as AdSense, once the context of a content display is matched to a set of potential advertisements for display, an auction mechanism is used to select one or more potential advertisements to actually appear on the page.
Using interactive web mapping services, users can navigate a map based upon an input location. For example, a map of a street address could be modified in granularity (e.g., zoom in and out) or navigated directionally (e.g., pan to the north, east, south, west, etc.). Some web mapping services also provide the service of requesting driving directions between locations. An example web mapping service is Google Maps™ offered by Google Inc.
An additional capability provided by some web mapping services can include a panoramic view of the street location. For example, a user could view and/or navigate street-level images within an interactive web mapping service. The street-level images, for example, can be captured by a camera attached to a vehicle. The street level images can be navigated in a manner similar to the web mapping services, with granularity and directional navigation options. An example of a street-level image mapping service is Google Street View™ offered by Google Inc.